In Romans 8 Paul really begins to focus on the work of the Spirit in the life of the believer after salvation. He has explained the gospel well (that is an understatement), or perfectly, really, and now focuses on the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit within the believer. The rest of the epistle is incredibly fascinating and worth intense study in order to comprehend things like election, God’s sovereign will in forming vessels of honor and vessels of wrath, and the importance of remaining in the apostles’ doctrine.
Paul ends Romans with an admonition to his brethren to avoid doctrine that is contrary to what has been taught. He describes who he is talking about, the ones to avoid. He says they are those who deviate from the original simple doctrine, they serve their bellies and not Christ (that is what tickles the ear rather than what is right and good and true). Paul says they deceive the simple with good words and fair speeches. Not that God doesn’t always speak good and fair things, He does, but Paul was referring to gravitating towards the pleasing light things and leaving the harder, meatier things.
Well, Paul spills this teaching over into 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians. The timing of the two letters are very close, maybe in the same year, during Paul’s 2 and 3 missionary journeys. We can clearly see the Spirit of God building truth upon truth, (here a little, there a little) edifying them that believe.
The church at Corinth was smack dab in the center of the worldliest of cities and that fact was causing some trouble in the church. Paul was sending encouragement and strong exhortation to the church in order to first address some waywardness that had slipped in and then to lift them up higher in Spiritual things.
We see that some of the things that needed correction in this particular church were serious immaturity, misuse of spiritual gifts, sexual immorality not even seen among the heathen and a general rebellion towards the authority of the word of God, world likeness and the lack of true Godly love toward the brethren.
Paul is severe with the church here and he foretells of that at the end of Romans when he says, behold therefore the goodness and severity of God. Paul gives them a choice: he says that they can either submit and hear what he has to say or they can resist and he will come with a rod to correct. Paul was generally not well liked. He laments this truth through out both letters. He states that he and the rest of the apostles are treated as refuse…this is their lot. They are despised and rejected and considered the least of all because of the task given to them by God. Paul later expresses this when he expresses what it means to take up in his flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ. Waywardness in a believer afflicts Christ. So this affliction, we are told by the Holy Spirit, presents itself not only in them that don’t believe but them that do and are resistant to the word of truth AND to all them that bring it. The afflictions of Christ then fall on them that are addressing those who are afflicting Him. Jesus warned that if we preach Him then we will receive the hate of the world because the world hates Him…it continues to afflict Him. This is what is meant by taking up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ.
The remedy then to the waywardness Paul was facing was to explain to these very brethren whom he deeply loved, that they needed to grow in Christ and then they would stop all the sinful behavior. But this growth is done by allowing the Spirit of God to form in us the Mind of Christ.
Romans 12 began the thought that we need a mind transformation in order to please God. NOT to be saved. We come AS WE ARE into the Gate…with filth and all self will. It is here now in the first 3 chapters of 1 Corinthians that Paul unloads a bombshell. I would love to point out just a few critical concepts that he leaves here for us if I may.
Like Romans 7, these three chapters concerning the carnal Christian and the mature Christian are terribly mistaught today. The way it is taught is so contrary to the rest of the Word that almost every teacher glazes over it and does not delve into it because they don’t undertand it. They drop it as a big matzo ball and then run away! hahaha!
But it is very easily understood, and reconciles many seeming contradictions, if we will just pause and ask the Holy Spirit to come in and esplain…
We see that Paul is addressing this letter to the mature. He says he is speaking wisdom to”them that are perfect”. This is a critical word to understand because in the word for word translation of oldest agreeing texts, it is used through out the entire Word and means exactly the same thing in every case. It is not referring to human ideas of perfection. It is referring to single minded (which is the Mind of Christ) submission to the perfect will of God. Self rule has been dethroned; also, entire sanctification expressed in 2 Thess. and elsewhere.
He is also speaking to the immature who are the cause for the letter in the first place. But he says that even though he is speaking to them, they cannot understand him. He says they can only ingest milk and not meat. But the rebuke is to them. They are the ones involved in all the sinfulness. So Paul is speaking to the mature in this church about the immature. He is also speaking to the immature who he is speaking about and to, but in a later sense (because they will only understand what he is writing after they have received through obedience the spiritual capacity to understand).
When Paul says the natural man cannot receive the things of the Spirit of God he is not talking about the lost. He is talking about the carnal believer (of course the lost can’t either, but that is beside the point, he is addressing all believers here). If we really read through ch 3 we will see this. If we look to the Greek word used here for natural it renders “soulish”. Look up the meaning in the Greek for that and we get this: the one who is ruled by the soul…the emotions, the intellect, the will. This is also a believer and not just an unbeliever.
The babe in Christ, and even the growing and nearly mature in Christ are still to differing degrees ruled by the soul until the Spirit gets through to the soul and then to the body…and he is then a spiritual man. The soul determines what the body does. The body is simply a vehicle to do the soul’s bidding…whether that be godly or ungodly things. For the believer, the indwelt spirit only rules the body when the soul has bowed down to the spirit and walks in the spirit. John 17 remember shows us that Jesus longs for believers to be one (spirit, soul and body) in Him…sanctified. This means that the believer is no longer ruled by what he thinks or feels or wills contrary to God. His spirit rules him completely and always…self has been dethroned; the Holy Spirit sits on the throne in the heart and no one can dethrone God. Double mindedness is gone. But this is only accomplished (in the believer) by an act of my will. I determine to dethrone myself and come up under the yolk of Christ, of God. It is very painful. The more resistant we are the more painful it can be. God is pulling something base up into holiness…tedious work. Jesus pleads with us to come up under His yolk. He says it is easy and light. Dwelling in the freedom of being under this yolk is easy and very light but getting there can be very hard. This is the echo of His voice to the Israelites in the dessert when He says to them in a longing voice that His word is easy to keep; it is in us and very near us to both will it and to do it.
Now the natural man, the soulsih man Paul speaks of, has the Holy Spirit in full. He is fully indwelt and may have been Spirit baptized even, but, he has not the fullness of the Spirit in the form of the Mind of Christ yet. This is why we see that these believers were even using the gifts of the Spirit, but wrongly. We see it today. Paul explains that only the Spirit knows what is in the Mind of God (same as the Mind of Christ). And only those who have received the full Mind of Christ, know fully what is in His Mind (all that He reveals to man here, anyway).
Remember that obedience lights the Mind of Christ, and continued obedience lights more of the Mind of Christ, and then the scripture which says that the one who obeys will know doctrine, if it is of God, makes sense. The problem with the Corinthians who were still immature in Christ is that they were disobedient, like the world and therefore could not discern doctrine, the word of God.
Now I’ll end this thought with this wonderful picture of eating that Paul uses. We know that we are to ingest the Word…Jesus is the Word, and Paul shows us as does the rest of the Word that He is also the Spirit! “and Christ is that Spirit”. God is Three yet remains One. A fascinating topic. This is why Paul uses consumption analogies. He begins the letter saying that it is addressed to the perfect (the mature), and in ch 3 says that these, the perfect, have the Mind of Christ. He is not saying that the babes do yet. In fact he clarifies that by saying…the spiritual man, the perfect, has the Mind of Christ, but the babes in Christ are still on milk and cannot yet comprehend what is in the Mind of Christ. They choke on meat…they don’t know how to chew and savor; they gulp. He says, even now you are stuck on milk and cannot bear (understand ) what I am saying. Become spiritual (sanctified) and you can bear it! They will later, because God sanctifies every believer…”He will do it” (2 Thess.) Even as he addresses them they do not understand but the Spirit will reveal it in time.
It is critical to note here that the perfect are not those who have “attained” or “apprehended” yet. Paul says it. By apprehended, he means reached full glory that only comes in Heaven. This perfection refers to the very beginnings of usefulness to God. Remember that only those who abide (these are the perfect, or mature, or fully submitted) in Christ can produce fruit for the Kingdom. It is a beginning point.
Think of the Lamb of Passover. One of the instructions to the Israelites was that the Lamb had to be consumed by daylight! What a visceral picture. Jesus is to be consumed completely for us to walk in that light fully. Remember that the believer who follows false things because he hasn’t discerned God’s mind, thinks that darkness is light. “How great is that darkness!” So the Corinthians, a lot of them, were in a darkness of sorts; meaning unrevealed light and not damnation.
“Unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood you have no part in Me!” Now remember that Jesus completes the good work He begins, so every believer will eventually consume Christ. For some however, it will be at death…when God forcibly frees him from his flesh. But it doesn’t have to be this way, having sent nothing ahead of us. We can resist sin to the point of bloodshed here (and actually be crucified with Him now) and mortify the flesh here (dying to sin, receiving the stripes on my back and body) or become the wheat that dies and falls to the ground here (producing many more seeds, bringing others with us, fruit) if we so desire.
One of the glaring and saddest pictures of the church as the day for His return draws near, we learn in Paul’s letters to Timothy, is that many won’t stand for sound doctrine. They only want their ears tickled. This is what the Corinthians were guilty of Paul says. It takes discipline and time and effort and longing to know God more, to sit still and hear the Spirit of God speak. Jesus warned that some will be too busy with life to do that. We see it today. God is speaking today like crazy, but how many are sitting still to listen? When we are obedient to His will, dying to our own that comes against Him, we hear very easily and very clearly. And there is nothing more glorious than that.
There is a beautiful picture of the Mind of Christ depicted in the tabernacle and all it’s instruments and furniture that we can talk about next time. We’ll look at how the lamp represents the Mind of Christ and how it is placed just outside of the Holy of Holies, perpetually lit, unable to be quenched, shining the only light there is into the Holy of Holies, revealing what is there!!!
Thanks for listening and have a blessed day in Him!
Love,
C
There is a major principle that God set in motion and it remains in motion, no matter what, and applies to all people and not just to believers…as some of God’s principles do apply only to believers.
We reap what we sow. Period. This is first a glorious promise and then a fearsome one. It’s glorious if we sow godliness and fearsome if we sow ungodliness.
I have observed something. The most important thing a matriarch or patriarch can do for their family, after leading them to Christ and then moment by moment looking and living like Him, is to never sow discord within the family.
Families who are divided, are for one reason… the leader gossips about everyone to everyone else. It may seem innocent to some, but it’s not. It is an ungodly thing to do and it sets up an inevitable reaping within the family.
Now trouble comes and trials come. But we can still know peace through them if we do not sow discord.
The leader who talks in any way behind the backs of any other family member, is sowing discord and will reap division and resentment within the family…discord.
Now there are situations where something needs to be said to intervene or to help but never to “vent”. How do you know which is which? God will help you discern. How about this: is your family at peace? Then all is well. Discord? Examine your ways and correct. Do you want peace? Pursue righteousness. Look: “ Righteousness and peace have kissed” (Psalm 85:10). The righteous know peace.
The leader who lives godly and keeps his or her mouth shut unless he or she has something godly and productive to say, will reap unity and a very strong and fulfilling family life. Period.
It really is that simple and it is a spiritual thing. If any family has discord running through it and division, look to the mother of father. If they gossip then they divide the family. If they don’t, then there will be peace and unity. There are no exceptions and no variations.
We reap what we sow, more than we sow and later than we sow (Charles Stanley, but this is in the word everywhere).
So take a look at your family as a leader and see how well you’ve done in your immediate family. How do your members get along? It’ll be directly proportionate to what comes out of the mother’s and father’s mouth. Test it to see. Stop gossiping. It is an abominable trait for anyone. God hates it. Give it a try and see if your family doesn’t start loving each other more and getting along better.
Look at what love does: love, among so many other wonderful things is long-suffering, thinks no evil. So this is the true meaning of this curious scripture that is also another principle that God has set in motion for all people, not just believers. Love covers a multitude of sins. So instead of gossiping, we need to suffer long, and let love cover a multitude of sins. Peace.
Make it a habit and then a lifestyle and then a personality trait. Imagine no evil, speak no evil. Reap peace and unity.
If we have any issue to discuss that berates another then take it to God. Speak freely with Him. But He has little tolerance for the gossip thing. He will tell you He’s heard enough.
There is never a need to talk about another behind their backs. Never. It is a very carnal and wicked thing to do yet our society relishes it. Maybe that’s why we are all in such a state.
Let’s clean up our thoughts. If there is an issue then have grace and patience. If you have an issue with a member then pray and at the very last, go to them. Don’t go to their brother. Go to them. If you have gone to them because it was absolutely necessary to, and they did not listen, then it’s time to go to another believer, but only to take that other believer to the person. Speak honestly and graciously to the “offender” and help them resolve it. Maybe you are the offender!! This is what God says to do.
The beauty of the sowing and reaping principle is that it is immediate in cases like this. It is so powerful that you will notice peace and healing immediately within the family.
Mother, father, I’m sorry, if there is division in your family, it’s your fault. Change your ways today because God is all about redeeming and restoring that which was lost. People are uniquely resilient and heal fast in christ, and if they are saved, then are so willing to forgive.
At all costs, stop sowing discord among the brethren. Toughen up and go to the person privately or keep your mouth shut. These are your choices.
Have you done well here? Good for you! Now, go do better. We can always do better.
Richness and rewards await the obedient in Christ!
Bless His holy name!
So the Feast of Unleavened Bread is a 7 day feast where all the leaven (sin) is swept out of the house (our spirit, now indwelt by the Holy Spirit). This is a picture of the believer, after salvation, dying to sin day by day, and being formed into the “measure of the stature of the fullness in Christ”. On the 8th day we see unleavened bread baked and offered to the Lord. This is a picture of the sanctifying work that He does in the heart AFTER salvation.
The next Feast is the Feast of Weeks, Shavout or Pentecost…goes by all names. Israel was to count off 7 weeks after the last Feast, which would be 49 days (7×7=49), then on the morrow after that, on the 50th day (pentecost=50), they were to hold another feast…the Feast of weeks, or Pentecost.
Jesus stayed with the disciples and taught for 40 days after He was resurrected, then on the 50th day, on the very Feast of Pentecost, He sent the Helper to all who had believed. That Helper being the Holy Spirit, to now indwell anyone who had come to Christ and received forgiveness of sin.
Now all of these Spring Feasts have been fulfilled at Jesus’ first coming, on the very day with the precise spiritual meaning. The last 3 will also be fulfilled at His second coming. Fascinating.
The next Feast on the Jewish calendar (how God reckons time) is The Feast of Trumpets. Fascinatingly, the particulars could describe the catching up of believers described in 1 Thessalonians 4:17 and 1 Corinthians 15:52. At the trumpet blast… This trumpet has nothing to do with the 7 trumpets in Revelation…totally different.
I looked at the particulars given by Paul of this event and two aspects popped out to me, so I looked back to the original events in the Bible of trumpets to see if anything jumped out at me and it did. Here it is and take it for what it is. Interesting stuff but nothing to be dogmatic about…yet.
My first thought is this: the first 4 feasts were spiritually fulfilled at Jesus’ first coming, so how could it not continue that the remaining feasts would also be fulfilled at the second coming and on the very day of the feasts? God is very consistent and the feasts are clearly historical events with prophetic fulfillments. Chuck Missler at KHOUSE.org is the best commentator on this topic and the link is on the home page of this blog.
My second thought was “let’s not get complicated, but look for patterns in wording”. This is how God works. Revelation, for example, is just a culmination of all prophecy already revealed in the Old Testament (Missler). If you want to understand Revelation, first study and know your whole Bible very, very well. This is why so few know Revelation. They are too lazy (I’m sorry, but it’s true) to make themselves KNOW what God has said. They basically don’t care…not really. He reveals truth to the honest and fervent searcher.
So, this Feast of Trumpets involves the blowing of a trumpet. The main thrust of this feast for Israel was to announce the wheat harvest. Of course, believers (both Jew and Gentile) are considered to be wheat. Its a time of gathering up the wheat. So I am hearing, “gathering up of believers for something”.
The next thought is that there is a shout along with the blast of the trumpet. So where do we see this in the Old Testament and to what is it related. Are there any patterns here. Everything mentioned in the New Testament was already mentioned in the Old…even though it might have been hidden…no, was hidden. Paul calls this a mystery.
In Joshua 6:1-27 we see the account of the last trump being blown at Jericho, and the shout of all the people, then the walls fell down, giving them the city …part of the promised Land. They entered in. And listen to this last little treasure: “and the people shall ascend up…” I do believe this is a reference to, and parallel with, “we shall be caught up in the air with Him”.
Also, we know that Elijah being taken up to Heaven by God’s chariot, is a parallel or picture of the rapture of the church. Guess where he was taken up? Right near Jericho. Interesting.
So I am thinking of the truth that it is God’s pleasure to give you the Kingdom. Remember God’s patterns. Israel is a microcosm of what it is like to be God’s people and they are a picture of our path. The church, made up of both believing Jew and Gentile, are God’s people. We ultimately, after the refining of Israel during the 7 last years of Jacob’s trouble, take the same path; when it’s all said and done. God’s people are God’s people. They are two flocks at first, then in the very end, one flock.
The Feast of Trumpets, also called Rosh Hashana, is a two day event. They never knew on which day it began until they saw the moon. Today we have the technology to know that in advance, but Israel did not. They had to watch and be ready. They knew the nearness however.
The church knows not the day nor the hour we will be caught up so we are to be ready (Matthew 25)…watching, because we know the nearness. Revelation 3:3 says this and is overlooked: Those who aren’t watching, won’t know the hour. This strongly implies that those who are watching (they are ready in Spirit) WILL know. Jesus’ statement is clear. Only those who aren’t watching, or ready, won’t know.
This two day window allows what Jesus said to be true with no contradiction: No one knows the day nor hour. It’s a two day Feast. We don’t know on which day at which hour in those two days. A lot of this revelation came from a terrific book by a messianic Jew, Rosenthal, called The Feasts of the LORD. I highly recommend it. Here is the link: https://www.christianbook.com/the-feasts-of-the-lord/kevin-howard/9780785275183/pd/71007
Now we know Jesus said to watch and be ready. We also know He said that its an hour we think not, to not be surprised as we are by a thief. That if we are watching, we won’t be surprised. He told us prophetic signs to look for so we can have a heads up, so to speak, as to anticipate.
Could it be? Very, very intriguing to me.
The last 2 feasts are Atonement and Tabernacles. I won’t go much into these Feasts for this reason: They pertain strictly to the nation Israel who will be unblinded during God’s wrath after the church is gone.
The Day of Atonement is the day Israel would confess sin, receive forgiveness. The event on the gospel calendar after the church is raptured is a day of Atonement for Nation Israel. She will see her Messiah at last and repent and be saved…sin atoned for by the only one who ever could…Jesus Christ. It’ll happen as she is tried by fire through the tribulation which is the last 3.5 years of the last 7 years of Jacob’s trouble mentioned by Daniel. The first half is marked by a false peace made with anti- christ, who only reveals himself at the 3.5 year mark. He is in disguise until then.
The last Feast is Tabernacles which pictures the completion of all things and the ushering in of the earthly reign of Jesus Christ on this earth for 1000 years. This Feast pictures God dwelling among His people in bodily form…Jesus Christ ruling and reigning.
Only after the 1000 reign where Satan is thrown into the lake of fire for eternity does the eternal state come in with the New Heaven and the New Earth.
Glory to God in the highest! At last, peace on earth for whom it was intended (that is, anyone at all who will CHOOSE to believe and be saved)! Praise His holy name forever!
When God freed Captive Israel from bondage in Egypt, He gave them 7 yearly Feasts to follow. These would picture for Israel, God’s deliverance from bondage into freedom.
Let’s look at each Feast and the particulars of that Feast to see what spiritual meaning lies within it, and how Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of 4 to date, and will also fulfill the 3 remaining Feasts that are yet unfulfilled.
God’s calendar is based on a 360 day year and is therefore different than the calendar we use today. His dates remain unchanged and it is how He reckons time.
Leading up to the beginning of the first Feast, on the 10th of Nisan, every Israelite family would select a sacrificial lamb for the Passover meal. It would have to be a spotless lamb.
***On the 10 of Nisan, Jesus rode into Jerusalem and allowed the people to select Him as their King. He didn’t allow it when it was tried before but on this day it was allowed because it was a fulfillment of prophecy. They didn’t realize that they were selecting THE Passover Lamb of God which the Feast has been foreshadowing for thousands of years.
This was a fulfillment of Daniel 9 to the very day.
Passover:
This is a 7 day Feast according to the scriptures. Israel has many added traditions today which are a distortion of the scriptures. The church, most of the church, has done the same thing. As a result, the original meaning and patterns have been lost. We are strictly looking at God’s instruction found in the scriptures.
I highly recommend this site for a more detailed explanation of that issue: www.preparetheway.com
The Passover Feast is celebrated on the 14th of Nisan, not the 15th. This year, 2018, the first night of Passover is on March 30th at sundown (which is actually 14th of Nisan). This is the end of the day for the rest of the world but it begins the 14th of Nisan on God’s schedule. God’s days are sunset to sunset, one day…not morning to evening, one day.
So on this day, the Passover lamb is to be slain and served at the Passover meal, which is to be held that night at sundown. God is adamant about that.
***Jesus will not only celebrate the Passover meal with His disciples at sundown on the 14th of Nisan when all of Israel would also have slain their lambs and gathered to eat their Passover meal, but He will BE the slain Lamb on the following day at 3:00 pm, still the 14th of Nisan.
Now Israel was instructed in Exodus and we see again in Deauteronomy 16:6, to slay the lamb on the 14th of Nisan at evening, at the going down of the sun.
***This is fulfilled and still allows Jesus to both celebrate the Passover and to BE the Passover Lamb. When He was crucified, the sun went dark for 3 hours while He hung on the cross. All of this to fulfill prophecy. So He was the Lamb slain at the setting of the sun on the 14th of Nisan.
***Jesus would be dead for 3 days and 3 nights because the Bible prophesies it and Jesus Himself states it (Matthew 12:40). It wasn’t 2 days or 2.5 days but 3 days and 3 nights. This would ensure that He would be resurrected on the 3rd day, the Feast of Firstfruits…presenting Himself to the Father, being our High Priest, as the Firstfruits of THE harvest of all mankind. He could not have been crucified on that Friday, therefore Good Friday is a tradition of man. It had to have been the day before on the 14th of Nisan, then 3 days and 3 nights would have fallen on Sunday, the Feast of Firstfruits.
The Firstfruits offering was the very first and best of a great harvest to come. He was the first and best resurrected, with a promise of the great resurrection to come.
Now before He was raised on the 3rd day, on the Feast of Firstfruits, the 17th of Nisan, which is April 2nd this year, another Feast began on the day after the Passover meal. So on the 15th of Nisan, the Feast of Unleavened Bread was to begin. Israel, today, has confused the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They skip the 14th of Nisan and celebrate on the 15th. This is because they did not recognize that Jesus was the Messiah who was the Passover Lamb and therefore they have no Lamb. Their righteousness is works based, which the scriptures say is no righteousness at all. This was clarified to me as I read the terrific article at preparetheway.com concerning the confusion of the two days. I agree whole heartedly.
The Feast of Unleavened Bread represents the sin-paid-for-life of a believer who now lives as an unleavened lump before God (1 Corinthians 5:7). It is not done by works but by the power of the Holy Spirit who now indwells all those who have received Jesus Christ as their Savior. He has paid for our sin, is our Passover Lamb.
This is a 7 day Feast where all the leaven (sin, leaven is always sin in the Bible) is swept out of the house.
***This represents first of all the sinless body of Christ and that His death paid our sin debt and will remove sin from the world ultimately. Oh death where is your sting? It also pictures the believers walk after salvation, purifying his heart by dying to sin day to day.
We see that when Jesus celebrated the Passover meal with His disciples, He never called it a last supper. That is nowhere in the word. Rather, He said He would not celebrate it again until we all meet again in the Kingdom of God when He returns. But that we as a church are to celebrate it in remembrance of Him until He does (Luke 22:19).
He said that with the Passover meal we are to proclaim His DEATH till He returns (1 Corinthians 11:26).
While the church is to rejoice and live daily in both the death and resurrection of Jesus, we are instructed only to celebrate with the Passover meal, the DEATH of Jesus Christ, until He returns.
There is no life (resurrection) without His death. This is why His death is to be celebrated. It was a victory, an accomplishment.
Isn’t it amazing that as the church has failed to celebrate His death, to proclaim His death, we see the crucifixion being forsaken. The problem of sin and repentance for the remission of sins is unpalatable today. Few are being saved, just like He said of life: “straight is the gate and narrow is the way and few find it” (Matthew 7:14).
In no way am I saying that if we don’t celebrate Passover that we aren’t saved. I am saying that the fact that the church has gotten lost in traditions of men, which have neglected or negated the word of God, is symptomatic of the fact that few there are that will be saved. Jesus said that.
We are not saved by anything we do but by Who we have received by faith…Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, Who is coming again as the King of Kings and the Lord of lords.
To the whole world, who will believe:
“…for even Christ, our Passover, is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the Feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened “ness”of sincerity and truth” (1 Corinthians 5:7-8).
Do we have to keep any feast? No. For the born again believer, Jesus is celebrated in the heart every day and not on any particular day. But why not? As it stands now, the actual day of His crucifixion goes by unnoticed by almost everyone.
More next time…
Before we begin, let’s establish first what the Gospel of Jesus Christ is because so few even know today.
After we do that, we will then examine the 7 Feasts of the LORD, and we will see how they actually tell the Gospel perfectly. And curiously, the fulfillment of the the Gospel happens on the very day it should, with that particular Feast, describing the Gospel.
THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST
1 Corinthians 15:3-4
“…Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures: and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the scriptures…”
ALSO:
Jesus said this is the Gospel:
“ This is what is written and so it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and the remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem…”
Luke 24-46-47
God gives Israel 7 Feasts to follow every year and these feasts are meant to foreshadow the redemption of mankind, and the means by which God will accomplish that.
The Feasts:
1-Passover
2-The Feast of Unleavened Bread
3-The Feast of Firstfruits
4-Feast of Weeks (Pentecost)
5-Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana)
6-Day of Atonement
7-Feast of Tabernacles
There are 4 Spring feasts and 3 Fall feasts, all surrounding the harvest.
While Israel was an agrarian society and the feasts involved their way of life, there is eternally more meant by the HARVEST. These feasts are really about the harvest of mankind. Let’s take closer look next time…
Here is a pattern in the word that the Lord showed me one morning many years ago as I was reading about Moses and wondering why he could not go into the promised land. It is an excerpt from Crucified, Getting the Mind of Christ.
Let’s look at Moses when he was about to leave this world…just before Israel was about to cross over into the Promised Land. There is so much here that it is overwhelming; so much symbolism is here. I want to just illustrate some symbolism that is here for the church. Ok, first we see that Moses was told by God that he could not enter the Promised Land because he had disobeyed God in Numbers 20:12. Moses, representing the law, almost a personification of the law, is unduly harsh with the people when they ask for water.
Moses gets angry with them when God was not angry with them and therefore misrepresents the heart of God. He strikes the rock. Now there is so much here that I am going to try to be organized about it. I hope that works. Now the next thing we see is that the striking of the rock represents the necessity of the crucifixion of Christ (the New Testament is hidden in the Old Testament, and the Old revealed in the New…they are one, Augustine). The water that comes out of it is the life of Christ poured out for us because He was stricken.
Even though Moses is disobedient here, there is an intentional pattern to see that foretells of the crucifixion. This whole pattern that I am going to lay out tells us that the law is good in that it brings us to the realization of sin. But it cannot save (Galatians 3). The law then, Moses, misrepresents God’s heart. The law condemns, but the heart of the Lord is mercy. Oh, how beautiful this picture is!
Look how Moses asks God if he can PLEASE go into the Promised Land. God gets angry with Moses and says, in essence, I said no, Moses, don’t ask Me again. Oh my, this is so great that I am holding back the tears.
While Moses actually did these things, and it is not exclusively symbolism, because it actually happened, the symbolism that I am about to discuss is heart wrenching. Let’s for a moment view Moses strictly as the Law. Remove his personhood just for a minute so we can see something hidden.
Moses, in Deuteronomy 3:25 says to God: I pray Thee, let me go over.
This is the law asking God if it can have a part in salvation. Notice that God gets very angry with the law at this point and essentially says, I said no, Moses, don’t bring it up again. God explains how Moses can go up to the mount and look at the Land but only Joshua could take them in.
Now Joshua represents Jesus. The names are the same. Yeshua, is Jesus in Hebrew, which is also Joshua. God is showing how the law brings all the way up to salvation, but only Jesus can bring us in.
The pattern continues. The law is not abolished, it can only have no part whatsoever in salvation. Jesus said don’t think I came to abolish the law, but to fulfill it!
Now look at what happens next. Before Moses leaves Israel in Joshua’s hands who will be the one to lead them into the PL, he says this to them as a warning, an admonition: “After you have entered into the land (salvation) keep the statutes and the commandments I have taught you that you may live. Do not add to or take away from the Word of God. If you will do His Word, you will have wisdom and understanding. Keep your soul diligently, (Deuteronomy 4:1-9). We see that wisdom and understanding come as we obey. “If you will obey, you will know doctrine, if it is from God”.
What a pattern. Moses, the law, brings us all the way up to salvation, then Joshua, Jesus, takes us by the hand and leads us in. Moses cannot come. He must stay behind. (Paul said if it were not for the law, he would not know he was a sinner). But look, Moses’ voice is echoing after them as they march in…”Be sure to cling to God and keep His Word as you go in, that you may know wisdom and understanding. Keep your soul diligently.”
The law brings us up to salvation, Grace takes us in. By marriage to Him, we do not violate the law. ” Righteousness and peace have kissed!”
Wherefore my brethren, you have also become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that you should be married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead.”
Notice that God buried Moses. Dead to the law means I have a new Husband and am married to Christ. This means that the law has no power over me because I keep it in Christ. The law IS master over the sinner in sin. If he breaks it, it is his slavemaster, if he keeps it, he is a slave to righteousness…free. The law is GOOD. It is not bad. It just can have no part whatsoever in salvation. Can the law EVER form Christ in me? NO! It is impotent to do it.
I disagree with a lot of teachers who think Moses messed up here. I think it happened exactly as God wanted. The Holy Spirit loves to use pictures and patterns to teach truth…they are so much better than mere words sometimes.
If Moses did not hit the rock (this is Christ, the rock), then it would have been Moses who lead the people into the promised land. This would mean that the law saves and not grace…which is not possible. The law would have marched them in, Christ would not have been stricken and bruised, but there would never be salvation.
The law put sin to death. It crucified the Lord (and rightly so…Jesus died as that sin). The law declared a death sentence upon sin. Jesus came in and saved by becoming that sin. The law is angry with sin and rightly so. If Jesus would not have come and been sin for us, the law would continually condemn mankind. Moses would have led them in and mankind would have a continual struggle with sin and the law that rightly condemns it, with no remedy.
We see this continue through the whole New testament, in the Lord’s teachings and all the apostles. Look at Matthew 5. Jesus is telling us that the one who breaks the commandments (this means the heart of the word and not the 10 commandments…the word shows us that) and teaches others to do so, will be what? not lost, but least in the Kingdom. The one who keeps the word and teaches others to do so will be what? greatest in the Kingdom.
James explains how we should be doers of the word and not hearers only.
So the one who LOVES God, truly loves God, is not the one who is soft on sin and filled with compliance with the things God hates. This is a man centered gospel that elevates man above God and seeks to please man and not God. No, Jesus tells us Himself that the one who really loves God (and this is higher than knowing that God loves me) , keeps His Word. This is how it is seen.
We must love God with heart soul and mind before we can love our neighbors as ourselves. One comes before the other and the other is not possible without the former.
True Godly love leads others in the ways of God, not in the ways of man.
A believer who still fights the Word of God is a slave to sin. He is miserable. He is not free. “He has not yet received a love for the Word”. One who is free, IS the Word of God. He is one with Christ, hidden with Him in God. Remember that Jesus Christ is the Word made flesh. When we become one in Him, we will be a sweet walking gospel as well. But some things Jesus has to say are hard and many will walk away when he gets to hard things, John 6:66.
But Jesus said, look, if you cannot hear (believe, understand) earthly things, how then can you receive or understand heavenly things? We cannot.
“Behold, therefore, both the goodness AND severity of God.”
Love in Him,
Cheryl
The Bible is packed with the truth that one MUST repent of sin to receive Jesus Christ as Savior, hence being born again, or born of the Spirit. It is not possible otherwise.
The Bible is so filled with patterns that speak truth, in order for that truth to transcend time, language and culture; making it impossible for false doctrine to prevail. Patterns make it impossible to twist a word or its meaning. The pattern is there and can’t be removed…the brilliance of God!
I was in conversation with someone some time ago, who disagreed with me as I was stating this truth. She was adhering to the teaching that says we do not need to repent to be saved.
In response to this disagreement, as He supernaturally does, in His supernatural way, He dropped into my head this pattern that only He taught me and I have never read anywhere:
In the same way John the Baptist came as the personification of repentance, preparing the way for Jesus to enter the scene, so does repentance of the heart prepare the heart for Jesus to enter it. He cannot enter unless repentance has prepared the way.
I think people believe this because they have not repented and therefore may just have been converted in mind about salvation. If they had repented, they would know the elation of it and would long for others to know it. The reason they haven’t repented is because they are rebellious and want to hop in to the Kingdom another way and not through the gate of repentance.
True repentance is very joyful. I remember a day when seeing, in my soul, the crucifixion of Jesus, falling down onto my face and weeping with a deep well of agony over what He was handing to me…His broken, bloody, body which would give me life. I have never felt anything apart from that, that matches that, but can go back there every time I ponder His sacrifice. It was really something that can’t rightly be put into words. There was zero guilt or sadness, only pure agony of some surreal kind. I think maybe it was a glimpse of His glory and I couldn’t breathe. I never uttered a “sinner’s prayer” though I know some do and that’s great. I was flooded with thankfulness and I think I felt a birth. It must’ve been life for the first time entering my soul and it was rapturous; the death of death, through His death for my sin, and the life of His shed blood, all at the same time, and that’s the key, all at the same time. And this is what repentance is…it is not a series of scripted words that follows a prescribed method. It is a place in the heart that agrees with God over my lost nature and longs for forgiveness, redemption.
To tell someone that repentance is not necessary for salvation robs them of this. How can one push away repentance when it is so joyful. What a thief the devil is. Repentance is the most exquisite thing a human can know and multitudes are turning away from it because they have rebellious souls. Oh how I pray this message today is read and heard and considered. Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand.
God bless you today!
Jesus Christ. He is the initiator and designer of my faith but also the closer, the finisher; the one who has obligated Himself to bring to completion that which He began in my heart.
I rest greatly in that. Really I am along for the ride once I have agreed with His verdict upon my soul, which is that I can choose life or death, or, that is, to remain in the death into which I was once born.
My goal then has been to do all I can to not resist the Spirit, who is transforming me, line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, into the one He created me to be…second born, born of the Spirit now and not just born in the flesh.
Though My servant fall 7 Times, He will stand. For I will make him stand.
I rest in that, but something else is at work in me because of that word from God. I want to be an easy subject. I want God to smile when He thinks of me and not groan because I am so rebellious and difficult…slow to see and slow to just run hard after Him.
I wonder sometimes if part of His agony over fallen creation, might be that which He couldn’t give because we were just so resistant to Him.
In the end when the flesh has perished and we are complete and perfectly remade, living with Him in eternity, I want to make sure that nothing I did to resist Him affected anything He wanted to give to me but couldn’t.
The good thing is that this is not based on my performance or skill or special ability or talent. It is only dependent upon my heart. Will I submit to Him or constantly go my own way, causing God to have to constant put a bridle in my mouth and tighten up the reins. How exhausting that must be for Him.
How do we do this? It’s so simple: Here’s what Jesus said: “Love God with all your heart and your neighbor as yourself, this is fulfilling all the law and the prophets”. Ha! How awesome is God! What a teacher He is!
My word to anyone who says to that “But how do I do that? Is this: Read the Word and do it. That’s it. Then let Him cleanse me, transform me and use me according to His glorious will. That’s when I can know perfect fellowship with Jesus Christ, the Creator of the universe and the very author and finisher of my faith.
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When I first got saved, I remember reading Romans 7 and understanding it just as Paul meant it. At that point my reading of the Word was exclusively with myself and the Holy Spirit guiding me in understanding. I would find out much later that the established church of our day was locked into an entirely different meaning of Romans 7, and this understanding was universally excepted and still is, and in my opinion, wreaks havoc. I have since found that almost every Bible teacher teaches here what he or she has been taught, rather than teaching what is there. And almost every believer accepts what these teachers have taught them, rather than letting the Word reveal itself to the heart through serious study.
I remember in a Bible study some years later presenting the possibility to a group that Paul was saying something completely different. It was NOT well received. Many years later I remember reading the complete works of Oswald Chambers and found that he taught it exactly as I understood it. I believe that without the proper understanding of Romans 7, the Christian walk can be confusing.
I think that extreme calvanism has played a part in this distortion. I agree with someone who once said, stay away from isms… they are always man made. If we read WAY back, we find that Chambers was right. And I mean way back to Polycarp, John’s student, Turtulian, Iraneus (sp?) St. John of the Cross, St. Bernard of Clairveux (whom Calvin loved to quote, and Spurgeon and almost every other fabulous, Spirit led teacher of the Word) and so many others. I could list many.
I don’t see that Paul is telling the believer that he will always do what he does not want to do. This is a relatively contemporary concept that was absent until maybe Calvanism, I’m not entirely sure of the timing.
I would like to point out just a couple of things to hopefully show that we might need to look at Romans 7 in a new light…the light of the Holy Spirit, who teaches perfectly His own thoughts, His own truth.
We see that Paul has let us know here in Romans (this is one of my favorite books) that this is his gospel. He says it. If John is the gospel according to John, then Romans is the gospel according to Paul. Paul was given the task of unpacking the gospel. Jesus stated it, Paul explained what was stated.
Paul knows he is getting into very complex territory here. But he has seen something that he must communicate to his brethren. It is why he was born, and his love for the Lord and the Lord’s people insists that he do it. So, Paul establishes himself as one having the authority to teach such things. He even says, “I magnify my office” (that is the office of apostle…someone who has seen the Lord and is sent with a message) in order to hopefully open ears to what he has to say. Romans is the gospel. It is the story of the fall of man, the death of God in the flesh to atone for that fall, and the salvation of God’s precious creation, mankind exclusively and only by grace through faith and NOTHING else. Paul is speaking with the authority given him by God and he has to make this authority known, so we will “listen up”.
Now, Peter tells us that some things in the Word of God are HARD to understand. This is maybe one of the hardest. But it is critical to understand it. I would like to make just a couple of points very briefly to maybe spark the thought of the possibility that Paul is indeed saying something far different than what the contemporary church ( maybe the last several hundred years?) has thought.
In Chapter 6 we see that he has built his point up to a crescendo of sorts. He explains that the one redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, should live no longer in sin. He needs to be dead to sin. In chapter 7 we see Paul explain who he was BEFORE Jesus got hold of him. He says that before salvation he has one nature, after salvation, two natures (we know these to be the old and the new man). The two war against each other. But he says up until a point only (we will look at this point); that all the new man wants to do, he doesn’t do (the good things) and all that the new man doesn’t want to do, he does.
But then he finishes up this lengthy thought with this: “who shall save me from this body of death!” Then he answers himself…Christ Jesus!
Now let’s glance at what Christ Jesus does for him, or enables him to do. Because it is OUR doing IN Him. He won’t do it for us. If we wait around for Him to do it, it’ll never get done. He mentions a couple of things that are important to look at. He mentions his mind and that it is captive by sin.
Skip to Romans 12. Paul is telling us that we MUST be transformed by the RENEWING of our mind (this is the mind of Christ, by the way). We will see in 2 Corinthians 10:5 that it is done by taking every thought captive that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and making it obey Christ.
Maybe next, we will show how the mind of Christ is developed and not given at salvation. This is explained in 1 Cor. 1-3, very clearly…we have not understood it today.
So, in Romans 7, Paul says the mind is captive (this is the believer, but the still carnal believer), in 2 Corin. he says we must then take captive our thoughts and MAKE them obey Christ. Paul says in Romans 7 that his mind is what is captive. In Romans 12, he insists that we must be transformed by RENEWING our mind.
In Romans 12, Paul says if we will do this, and it is done by offering ourselves as a LIVING sacrifice on God’s altar, we WILL be a pure and holy sacrifice unto God.
Now, Paul gives us a critical picture here of the altar of God. Remember that only a lamb with no spot is allowed on the altar. So, a believer who is still hanging on to sin and self rule, is filled with spots and CANNOT get on God’s altar. He is indeed covered in the blood but his spots remain in a current sense until he dies to self rule. (He who saves his life will lose it, he who loses his life will save it…) “Seek ye FIRST the Kingdom of God and His RIGHTEOUSNESS…” Why is the believer told to seek His righteousness? God finds us, we don’t find him. A critical truth is hidden here.
We are not discussing salvation here, this is a foregone conclusion. We are discussing maturity, holiness, blamelessness. The newly saved believer is blameless in a future sense, yes. That is because Jesus completes every work He begins. But Paul is beseeching (fervently pleading or begging) BELIEVERS, not unbelievers, to present themselves holy by renewing their minds, so they CAN be placed on His altar. If Paul were referring to the lost here, he would be preaching a works gospel. But he is speaking only to the saved, the indwelt. The unsaved CANNOT renew their minds. And the saved, evidently need to do something here.
Now, in order to present ourselves pure and holy to God, a death MUST occur. Jesus stated it, remember, now Paul explains it here. Jesus already was the dying Lamb, the slain Lamb. But we are also sheep. Because He already died on that altar, we don’t have to literally die…that would accomplish nothing. But we must have a death. It is death to sin. When we are dead to sin, there is NOW and now only no spot IN thee. Paul says we now can offer ourselves as a LIVING sacrifice on His altar. The sacrifice is death to the old man.
When trying to reconcile when this spotlessness happens in an actual sense, we have to look at the entire word to discern it. We also are wise to keep this truth in mind, and it is mentioned right here in Romans, of course. The Holy Spirit speaks of things which are not, as though they were. Why? Because if it will one day be, it already IS to Him. God lives in and speaks from the eternal now.
I will submit that God does not call a new believer, or a rebellious believer, spotless, who is still not yet walking by the Spirit. He will one day be spotless, this is inevitable. But until he has died to self and sin and God has declared it so (death frees us from sin Rom. 6:7), this is either actual physical death or death to our own will that comes against God, he walks in the flesh…always fighting the flesh, until it also is made holy. A believer’s rebellion is the only obstacle to this death. He is ruled by his soul still which is filled with me, myself and I and all I feel and want and touch and taste, etc. The soul and body are fleshly until they are made spiritual. This is the believer. His spirit is infused with God. But the soul and body are still under the control of the old man…he is a divided house, double-minded. But Jesus is away building us a house, right? This is it!
Remember Jesus saying two things to the woman caught in adultery: He expressed her salvation because she simply looked to Him (remember the pole in the desert), “Woman, neither do I condemn you” and her sanctification,or maturity, or death to self rule, “Now, go sin no more”.
People will rise only to the heights they believe are possible. But the authority of the Word of God overwhelmingly says and demands even, that we can and must be done with sin. God does not require of us what He has not equipped us for. But the Holy Spirit dwelling within the believer is all that is needed to walk in His fullness. But self must step aside first, and allow single-minded devotion and obedience to God to reign in his heart. Freedom is known at this point. The deliverance from this body of death Paul mentioned, is for here and now and not just then and there. Remember that in 1 Corinthians 3, we see believers arriving in Heaven having sent nothing ahead of them. Some will have sent much fruit, and some will have sent none. Both are saved, both in Heaven forever. The one barely saved, thinks he cannot here and now die to sin.
If every believer is dead to sin at salvation, and literally has to die to nothing (calvanism), then why are there believers in Heaven who barely got there? Jesus said believers must abide in Him to produce fruit ( fruit being a complex concept and not just good deeds). Some believers will arrive in Heaven having no fruit whatsoever. They were their own masters, living in the soulish flesh, ruled by emotions and refusing to submit to God, exercising their own will above God’s. How is a believer who always fights sin and the flesh free? He isn’t yet. He will be in Heaven, but what he doesn’t know because Satan has hid this from him, is that he CAN be free now. Not free TO sin, but free FROM sin.
Jesus will not look at them and say like He says to the Bride, there is no spot IN you, until they are freed from the body by actual death. But we can be free from the body of sin and death now, if we will allow our spirits to penetrate the soul and then the body. Jesus spoke of it in John 17, when He asked that each believer be one (body, soul and spirit agreeing, not a divided house, but single minded) and then hidden with Christ in God. In this instance, Jesus is NOT asking for the unity of the whole church, but the unity of each individual believer…He says sanctified, one in Him.
Now Satan has been very clever. He knows what the Holy Spirit is up to in every generation. He works his deception accordingly. The holiness doctrine is one that surfaces to confuse every time the Spirit decides to resurface this topic to His beloved church. The holiness doctrine teaches that we must obsess over outward things like speech, possessions OR the lack of them, what we eat, where we go etc., who we see, how often we attend church, how active we are in the many, many busy activities that are present today in the church but were absent in the first church…it goes on and on. It is binding, restrictive, of the flesh and has no resemblance to God Himself.
True holiness is rare and free and pure and simple and sweet and clean and lovely.
The fruit of the Spirit is all these things, and guess what…against these lovely things, there is no law!!!
I hope that sparks some consideration and maybe a new look at Romans 7.
The Lord bless you and keep you today!
Love,
Cheryl
Faith in its infancy is always taking. It’s center of thought and being is self and all that self needs to thrive. Its main focus is on how much God loves me. This is a necessary and good stage but one that God longs for every believer to leave behind in order to take possession of a higher love…lofty place or room, so to speak, where all I know is how much I love God. In order to enter into this knowledge the former must first be known, that God LOVES me.
If someone has truly come in through the Gate, the love of God for the believer has flooded his heart, the Holy Spirit bearing witness to this truth. This believer will rapidly begin to discern that there is something yet higher than knowing God’s love for me. And that is that I LOVE GOD!!!!! Remember that we love God because He first loved us.
This is pictured so well in Song of Songs. The bride is seen upon her bed, all snuggled in for the evening, basking in her new found romance with the Lover of her soul. She KNOWS that God really loves her. She is beside herself with deep joys. Yet strangely, when her very Beloved comes to her door to call her out, she doesn’t want to get up. She is comfortable and even lazy, having been lavished with the love of her Beloved, God Himself. She says that she has already taken off her robe and gotten settled, why does He want her to rise up? There is a closed door between them still. He is trying to open it but she must come to turn the knob.
Then, something in her heart realizes that there is something better than reclining in the glory of His love. She jumps up and runs to the door to get to Him…but alas, He has departed. He removed Himself from her for a moment to force her growth into a mature, consummated relationship with her Beloved.
She now will go through whatever it takes to get to Him. She is in the darkness of night searching, beaten by the guards (killing the flesh in her) but she takes no notice of it.
All she knows now is that she is consumed by the love in HER heart FOR God.
Jesus said it is more blessed to give than to receive. And it is indeed. It is also more blessed to love than to be loved. This is what God wants us to learn.
Let’s look again at Song of Songs. We can see a truth that is incomprehensible to us unless we have entered into the higher love that is God centered and not me centered… that is knowing that I LOVE GOD now instead of just focusing on the fact that He loves me.
It is God Himself pictured here in the Beloved who asks the Bride to turn her eyes from Him because He cannot bear her beauty anymore. He cannot bear her beauty anymore because she has become JUST like Him! She is all lovely and all beauty exactly like her Husband, Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom. She no longer takes and takes and takes satisfying the insatiable longing to be filled up with the love of God. She is filled to overflowing and perpetually overflowing. She now only gives. Just like Him!!!!
This is a sweetness that only God knows. He would rather love than to receive it. This is seen in the atonement. The beauty is this: once a believer has risen to this love, he now loves others whether they love him or not (love your enemy). And it is most glorious to do it. This love isn’t dependent upon how others treat me or how they behave or anything. This love is God’s love pouring through me.
So truly this is the perfecting of the believer ( “Leaving the elementary things of Christ behind now and moving on to perfection…that is, Christ likeness”), and Jesus said it so concisely, which is always His way. That is that I now DO love the Lord my God with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my mind (that is, body, soul and spirit because we are also a trinity, made in His image), AND I am now able to love my neighbor as myself.
Thank You Lord,
Be blessed today,
Cheryl